Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to electronic collaboration sessions, and, in particular, to a system and method for tracking and predicting service completion times using real-time speech analytics of user communications.
Description of Related Art
Contact center management systems often calculate an estimated expected wait time (EWT) of a customer contact based on historical information. The formula for calculating expected wait time is typically derived from the rate at which contacts are answered, relative to the number of contacts in queue, together with other available historical statistics. This calculation is based on historical averages and does not consider any indicators that some calls usually take longer or shorter than the daily average. Indicators are evidence of the temporal progress of a call, relative to a metric.
Expected Wait Time is fundamental to operation of a contact center. EWT is used in a number of scenarios in a contact center environment. First, the contact center may inform a user of the EWT for their call. Providing such estimates is now commonplace, and a caller may become dissatisfied if the contact center does not provide him/her the EWT. Informing a caller of the EWT and offering suggestions or alternative options allows users to decide the best course of action for their circumstances. Second, EWT is used by a contact center to manage workflow and to make a determination regarding how best to route the contact. Third, EWT is used in real-time reporting of contact center status in order to display queue metrics to contact center supervisors. Fourth, EWT is used to compute other contact center metrics, e.g., when calculating performance relative to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for a given work queue.
Despite expected wait time being a key metric in the day-to-day operation of the contact center, the computed value of EWT is an estimated value, and known methods of calculating EWT are not sufficiently accurate. The operation of a contact center could be significantly enhanced with a more accurate value. Therefore, a need exists to provide improved estimates of expected wait time, in order to provide more efficient contact center operation, and ultimately improved customer satisfaction.